Stepping On Butterflies
by Mai Ascot
Summary: AU. What if the 'Therapist' episode had ended differently? Hal had remembered to put his break on, the boys couldn't prove that they were innocent, and the Physiatrist spoke to Lois and Hal about Malcolm being sent away. Rated T for swearing.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: **What if the 'Therapist' episode had ended differently? Hal had remembered to put his break on, the boys couldn't prove that they were innocent, and the Physiatrist spoke to Lois and Hal about Malcolm being sent away.

**Disclaimer: **Whoever owns Malcolm in the Middle owns Malcolm in the Middle; I own nothing. There will be no other disclaimers in this story, simply because I'm lazy. This counts for all.

**AN: **Literally just watched 'Clip Show' and this idea came to me almost immediately and I just had to write it down, so here goes... Hope you enjoy!

**...**

"Mr and Mrs Wilkerson... may I call you Hal and Lois?" The Physiatrist was a man with greying blonde hair, retro glasses and a tie that almost covered his entire front from the neck down. Lois thought that he was very ordinary for a therapist, and that gave her the slightest grain of hope that his normalness had rubbed off on her children in the space of half an hour.

"Yes, yes. Now, Doctor, could you tell us if-"Hal was rubbing his hands together, leaning forwards towards the man on the other side of the desk longingly, almost willing the man to produce and solution with a click of his fingers.

"-if I have found the solution to your problems? Yes I think I have. It's a fairly common case actually, and one in eight families in this state have it, especially with boys, where there is a-"

"Yes, we _get it. _In _English." _Lois snapped, banging her hands down on the table, and fixing the Doctor with a glare that she often fixed to her sons. He didn't hold up as long as Malcolm, Reese and nowhere near as long as Francis, but he beat Dewey by about a millisecond.

"Your- Um- Your middle son, Malcolm, is um- I think the ringleader. He's obviously cl- clever and p-picture this: he's sitting at home with his brothers, watching TV, and his brain is whirring because it's not satisfied with the boring level of things. So why not take the car out for a joyride, bring his brothers along?" Lois' lips where parted and she was slowly nodding her head, and Hal had collapsed back into his seat with his head in his hands, muttering 'no' under his breath.

"Malcolm? I was thinking that it would be Reese I mean-" Lois was the first to recover, was giving the Therapist a glare and he was desperately ignoring her eyes. But as his words sunk in, her forehead cleared of lines in understanding.

"But he's just Malcolm... Malcolm in the Middle..." the Therapist stiffened, as he heard Hal's soft and moaning voice, saying the same words the boy in question had said not twenty minutes before. There was something about that phrase, _Malcolm in the Middle. _He shook his head slightly. He was being silly. But still, he stored it away on his infamous clipboard anyway.

"I'm sorry to suggest this, Hal, Lois, but I think that you may have to take the same path of action you took with your oldest. I think that it is in the best interests of Malcolm and your other sons to send him away." Hal froze, limbs locking up, while Lois nodded her head quickly.

"Good idea, I've done it once before, I can do it again..." the woman straightened up and pursed her lips, before sticking her hand out. Hesitantly, the normal shook it. "It's good to have a professional's confirmation this time..."

Abruptly she stood, and stalked over to the door, crossed her arms over her chest and began to tap her foot rhythmically and angrily.

Hal took his head out of his hands.

"Are you sure...?" The man sounded broken, and lost, and for a moment, the Doctor wanted to tell him that he hadn't failed as a father. But then, he would almost certainly be lying, looking at the fact that one child was already in Military School, another was headed there by his instruction, one was a bully, and the last seemed to be a little bit... odd.

The Doctor nodded.

Lois opened the door.

Three pairs of eyes focused on her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary: **What if the 'Therapist' episode had ended differently? Hal had remembered to put his break on, the boys couldn't prove that they were innocent, and the Physiatrist spoke to Lois and Hal about Malcolm being sent away.

**Disclaimer: **Whoever owns Malcolm in the Middle owns Malcolm in the Middle; I own nothing. There will be no other disclaimers in this story, simply because I'm lazy. This counts for all.

**AN: **Woo... I updated! ;) I have a new lease of life in MitM...

**...**

"_But he didn't-"_

"_I didn't!"_

"_You can't-"_

"_He's our_ brother!"

"_Just like with Francis-"_

"_Why would you-"_

"_I hate you-"_

"_Believe him not us-"_

"_We never-"_

"_I hate you-"_

"_I'll phone Francis-"_

"_How could you-"_

**...**

Lois wondered numbly if she was in hell.

But where was the fire? Where were the screams? But actually... this was worse.

Because her house was never silent.

It was full of bad sounds usually, screams of anger, of pain, of terror, stomping boots of resignation and the washing machine whirring, whirring, whirring in the background.

She'd deny it till the day she died, but Lois preferred it that way.

Now there was silence.

No. That wasn't true.

If she strained her ears, she could hear soft words and (_that couldn't be) _was Malcolm crying? Unaware of her body moving, Lois had creeped to her door, trying not to make a sound, as she heard snatches of the words, of the screams and the hushing noises.

"_I'm so sorry... you're my brother... you can't..."_

"_Please don't go Malcolm... please... just tell mum sorry..."_

And Malcolm was crying.

It gave Lois the most horrible sense of nostalgia, as she remembered almost exactly the same thing happening when she had told the boys that Francis was leaving. Dewey was so small, he didn't realise what was going on. Malcolm had begged Francis not to go. Reese had been the one crying that time, and now it was Malcolm. That was one difference. But Francis too had stayed silent, dry choking noises coming out of his throat once in a while.

But Lois had done it before.

Lois had done it before.

And it hurt just as much as she remembered.

**...**

Francis had his turn at the phone, finally.

People at the academy had ended up enjoying his calls home, so that tonight he had quite the audience waiting to hear the voices of Lois, Hal, Malcolm, Dewey and Reese. They all had seen pictures, learned things about his brothers little piece of information at a time, and soon they grew almost as fond of his siblings as Francis himself was.

Almost.

He punched in the number quickly.

He put the phone on speaker.

He heard the rings.

Finally, someone picked up.

"_Hello?" _The voice sounded thick, and it took Francis a moment to place it.

"Reese? It's Francis."

Heavy breathing came down the line.

"Reese?"

Silence.

When Francis was about to yell into the phone in panic, Reese spoke again, after a barely audible thump was heard on the other side of the phone, like someone sitting down.

"Francis? Oh god, Francis..." Reese sounded raw. Like someone had rubbed his voice box with sandpaper. Everyone was looking alarmed now; something big had happened. Something huge. Monumental. Because everybody knew big, interesting things happened at the Wilkerson house practically every day. But Reese had never sounded as broken.

Francis had only known Reese this broken once before.

"_Please, Francis, don't leave! Please... please... I _need _you here, I'm never going to be anything... I can't be the oldest... please don't go..." _

"They've gone mad..."

It was obvious who they were.

"What have they _done,_" People launched back. They had never actually heard Francis this angry. They had seen him shout and scream and yell about the monstrosities of life and the unfairness of punishments for menial things, but his whole body was shaking in anger, voice laced with venom, knuckles with a white hot grip on the phone.

"_Tell me, dammit!" _

"They're gonna send him away..."

"_Who? Who? SPEAK TO ME!"_

"Malcolm."

Shock reigned through the room. Malcolm. _Malcolm. _The problem solver. The genius. The middle child.

"Tell me _everything."_

**...**


	3. Chapter 3

Herkabe was looking forward to this.

He had always had a hate-hate relationship with his by far smartest pupil, and was getting a certain sense of sadistic glee of finally getting rid of him.

Underneath that, Herkabe did feel that it was going to be brilliant telling the Krelboyne's. They'd surely be ecstatic that the little show-off would be disappearing and stop stealing their credit. He knew that the 'Malcolm's our friend' routine was all an act.

So Herkabe entered the Krelboyne room with high spirits, even whistling as he closed the door. This caught the kids attention immediately - Mr Herkabe was never in a good mood. Ever. He walked to the front of the class, and turned round to face his students, smiling.

_Smiling._

He grabbed a chalk and wrote on the blackboard, still manically grinning, unsettling many members of the class that he was teaching.

'CRIME AND PUNISHMENT'.

"Let us see... what does 'crime and punishment' mean?" There were many rolled eyes at the obvious question, but everybody's hand rose in the air. Smirking, Herkabe pointed to Stevie to answer the question.

"It means... sir... that when... someone... _commits... _a crime... they are... punished." Stevie gasped, before taking a deep gulp of air.

"Very good, wheelchair kid." Stevie bristled, but Herkabe continued with his seemingly meaningless rant. "I'm sad to inform you," Herkabe looked far from sad, was the silent consensus "that today we lost one of your classmates to-" instead of finishing his sentence, Mr Herkabe jabbed a finger at the blackboard.

"Do not look around. I shall tell you that early today Lois Wilkerson, mother of Malcolm-"

"_Malcolm?"_

"_No way..."_

"_WHAT?"_

The shout came from Stevie whose breath was now coming out in violent gasps. "He... can't... can't... can't..."

Everyone seemed to begin to hyperventilate as one now. They needed Malcolm. He was their friend, their ally, their leader. The only one who managed to know what to do in the sticky situations the Krelboyne's always seemed to manage to get themselves in.

Clearing his throat loudly, Herkabe continued "pulled Malcolm out of school to go to a Military School, which his brother, Francis is a cadet in. Hopefully if he returns he will be a new person-"

"_THIS IS BULLSHIT!"_

Stevie again had shouted, not even pausing between the words, and began coughing violently, before wheeling out the room.

Herkabe stood, and opened his mouth to call the boy back, when the rest of his class rose from their seats and ran out the door, leaving the bitter man alone without a class to teach.

**...**

Malcolm was sitting on the steps up to their house with Reese.

Dewey had gone to school, literally having to be dragged away by Hal. They had tried to do the same with Reese, and in retaliation, Reese had punched Hal in the groin.

The tears were gone now, dried out. Malcolm couldn't cry anymore, just stare into space, and mourn his life of freedom, and have Reese to lean upon, and rub circles in his back and tell Malcolm scarily detailed plans about how he was going to get back at their parents.

Francis had yelled, and screamed, and griped, and even tried to _reason _with Lois but in the end she had just slammed the phone down, phone Spangler who after hearing that Malcolm was Francis' brother had accepted another Wilkerson to bang into shape (in exactly those words) at short notice, and had then hastily disconnected it before Francis could call back.

Lois was packing the car now, with some of Malcolm's clothes and some of Reese's (for when Malcolm gets bigger) and then taking some out and putting others in. She was almost done.

Then she was done.

Lois pried Malcolm away from Reese who he was gripping onto, while trying desperately to blank out the threats Reese was giving her, and ignore the outward and internal pain and just get on with it.

How she had managed it, Lois didn't know, but she was in the car with Malcolm, and Reese was like a statue on the steps, and they were driving away. And she had just reached the edge of town when the Krelboynes arrived at her house to see that Malcolm was already gone and the school bully was sobbing for his little brother.


End file.
